Rating: 
Summary: Not Easy, But Powerful
Review: I have read the other reviews on this product and have been wondering why this product received such bad ratings. The only constant is that none of the reviewers seem to be happy with any home design programs. That's probably because these programs require lots of hard work and tedious hours to get the results you are looking for. I too have used many other home design programs. And if you are looking for one that is simple, you will certainly not get the results you are looking for.With that said, let me state that this program is the ONLY home design program that allowed me to build my existing house to almost perfect specification. The rendering is excellent and the features are undeniably some of the best on the market. It comes with many pre-defined objects, but those that are not included can be custom-built using the included 3D workshop tool. Again, this is not easy to use, but it is very powerful. It took me many hours to recreate my home, some of them frustrating. But, in the end, I was able to recreate my house perfectly, and landscape around it with ease. No other program (Broderbund, Sierra, etc.) has yet allowed me to do that. For those of you who do decide to buy this package, you may find the following tips useful: -This package does not do interior design. Check out the Punch! website for information on exactly what this and their other packages include.
-To my surprise, chainlink fences are not included. This is a drawback.
-Snap features are not great if you are drawing your house on an angle. It is best to draw your home vertically or horizontally and rotate the entire design once it is complete.
-Download the latest update from the Punch! website. It adds a plant finder by name, a wall break tool, and a few other nifty add-ons.
-Plants are difficult to find. Keep a nature guide handy so you can better identify your landscape objects.
-Be sure your monitor is set to 24-bit color or higher. Rendering problems will occur at lower color depths (this probably explains some of the negative reviews).
-Objects are difficult to select if they are stacked on top of one another. Try moving objects (temporarily) to other plans (roofing, landscape, etc.) and then moving them back once you have selected the item below it.
-Designing the exterior of your home is the hardest part of the process. Be patient and take your time with this step. Once it is complete, the landscaping is a breeze.
-Above all, HAVE FUN!
Rating:
Summary: It's a great product!
Review: I just moved in a new house and was looking for a landscape design program. I have used many other landscape design products and this is one of the best; I do have professional experience with various drafting software. I had no problems using the interface; it is intuitive and easy to use. The final image on the 3d rendered version of your plan is of good quality, good enough to get a good idea the end result. It does not show the seasonal changes of your selected plants, but it does have a plant age slider which shows the plants in your garden growing to it's full height, which is excellent for planting trees. It is a fun program to use. Keep in mind that it is not a professional CAD(Computer Aided Design) program, but it is designed for ease of use, as easy as a drafting program can get. Just keep in mind that all the fancy features other programs offer is no good if you cannot use the program due to a large learning curve or bad interface.
Rating: 
Summary: What a misleading package
Review: I just wanted it to plan some landscaping. I am an experienced software user, and have been active in the software development industry for 15 years. Just want you to know that so you can understand that I am not a novice user. However, this is the 1st product that has me completely stumped. I doubt that I'll be able to get my money back but I will try. This has been a complete waste of time. The pictures on the package are the most misleading I have seen on a software box.
Rating:
Summary: I got Punched
Review: I ordered this software to help me design my backyard. It was way too difficult to use. Trying to look at my project from different angles was impossible. I sent in my rebate last September and have not recieved my check. I went online to see what is going with my rebate and it claims my check has already been sent. There is no date of when the rebate was sent so I guess it is the old "Checks in the mail" answer. If you want to keep your sanity "DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT". I only gave them 1 star because it did install and this site doesn't have a 0 star selection.
Rating:
Summary: This has got to be the worst garden design software around
Review: I purchased this product last week in order to complete a garden design for a client who wished to see various 3D views. In my previous job I used AutoCAD and TurboCAD, so am no novice when it comes to computer-aided design. I feel that this product is slickly packaged fluff - I would be very surprised indeed if a qualified horticulturalist or garden designer was in any way involved in the design. Firstly, the site layout tool is fairly easy to use, allowing you to get the basic plot onto your plan. From there on though, things begin to go awry. There is a very poor selction of fence styles etc, but to custom draw your own is extremely cumbersome, using a clumsily designed and rather archaic 3D-Custom builder, which you must swap into and out of. In addition, the selection of styles for hard-landscaping surfaces is very limited, meaning you can only render a vague idea of the actual finish you are looking for. Finally, on the hard-landscaping front, the photo-importing tool (one of the main features that swung me in favour of this product) is terribly difficult to use. On the plant side, it goes from bad to worse. The plants that are in the selection are badly drawn to a large extent, and one feature that is absolute fluff with no basis in reality is the plant ager. This feature ages all trees almost identically up to the age of 20 years, which is pointless. Even the most extreme novice is surely aware that a black oak will be considerably larger than an English Hawthorn as time progresses? More importantly though, the plants have no Latin names - which is quite shocking in any garden design programme. The English names are Americann-English, which varies wildly from real English (yes, I know it's an American product, but to launch it in the UK or Europe without taking account of this is lazy, money-grabbing marketing) It is for this very reason that Latin nomenclature is used!!!! The English list is not even alphabetical! In addition, the 'artists renditions' of many of tha plants are quite inaccurate. I have read a few good reviews of this item on this page, and can only assume thay have been paid to write them. This is most definitely the worst piece of software I have ever purchased, and I will take it back to the shop I bought it from as soon as I can to try and argue for a refund. DON'T BUY IT!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: It does everything I wanted of it and more
Review: I read the reviews and saw that while most reviews were negative, a few loved it. How could that be? So I bought it thinking it might just take some effort and should be ok. My gamble paid off, it really is very nice! Be sure to go to the product website at ..... and pick up the latest patch, it fixes problems and adds features. Some complained about not being able to search for a plant by name, the patch includes "search by plant name" to address it. That website also contains an online user forum with plenty of good information. Next check out the Punch! Alternatives website. It contains great user objects, resources and information to make the most of the product. I've been using a floorplan trace and have reproduced my home exactly. The walk around is beautiful. There's a Photoview feature that some may find useful. I thought I'd use it before I bought it, but it proved unecessary because the regular design looked good enough. If you expect to load it on your computer and have a design in an hour or two, you'll be disapointed. If you go in willing to invest some time, you'll love it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your money
Review: I spent way too much time trying to get this program to do what I wanted it to. The 3D walkaround isn't nearly as good as Sierra's LandDesigner. Every time you put the CD in it launches the installer which can get annoying. In the course of using the product I found several bugs, one of which I couldn't find a workaround (unexpectedly resizing the right side of the lot which would then foul up every object on that side). All in all I feel like it was a waste of money.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for laying out landscape
Review: I was a bit worried about purchasing this product based on many of the other customers reviews but because I wanted a relatively powerful program, and there were few others available, I went ahead and purchased it. I definitely was not disappointed. It's a great program for laying out what you want to do. I have a brand new house and no yard--this program allows you to visualize, both in drawing and 3D, everything from water features to patios to your actual house. I love the floorplan trace feature which allowed me to reproduce my house's exact floorplan and using textures, windows, and doors, I was able to reproduce my house pretty closely and to scale. The other customers' complaints regarding the planting feature are very valid. There is no way to preview what you are planting and you must place it in your drawing and then go through a menu to figure out what plant it is. This is definitely very annoying and this program isn't good for those who just want to strictly plant. Aside from the planting drawback, I generally recommend the program. The program's ability to print in both design and 3D mode is also a great feature. The program is pretty easy to learn for those familiar with windows based software and/or other design programs. I wish it had come with a tutorial but the manual is pretty useful. Just from occasionally referring to the manual and playing with it, I was able to learn it in one day.
Rating:
Summary: I bought it for the digital photo feature--don't bother!
Review: I was used to an old version of a land design package by Sierra that gave me nice, big pictures of my house to work with, but it broke. (Okay, so it was slow, but I could visualize what I wanted.) This monster takes forever to figure out and the digital pictures you import show up in a tiny window. Once you figure out how to make that thing bigger, you're exhausted from trying to learn the rest of it. Also, it advertises that you can do interior design with it but I simply can't find that feature. (They did give me a booklet of houseplans, though.) I hate it and wish I could get my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Master Lanscape software is not a toy.
Review: If you're looking for an easy software package that lets you play for a few hours on a Saturday afternoon and get quick gratification, then this definitely isn't for you. Rent a video game, turn on the TV, or go plant some bushes.
If you want a very sophisticated architectural design package that a layman can learn to use without being a math wizard, then take the time to learn how to use this product. From what I've seen, it's the most advanced on the market. It is awesome! But you have to take the time to go through the Help Tutorial or you won't know what the tools are, or where to find them. I've been writing instructional materials for software systems for fifteen years. My opinion is that the Master Landscape and Home Design application is an incredible piece of programming. You should just about be able to do anything you want with this software, and all the background you need is basic carpentry and basic cipherin'. Sure there are design tweaks that would make it easier to use, but I would assume if the company wants to stay on top of this niche in the market and make the product better in the future, then they'll continue to upgrade it as time goes on.
Congratulations to the design team. This is a very slick product for the backyard builder.
| 
